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2nd CfP: HaPoC4

Second Call for Papers
4th International Conference on History and Philosophy of Computing
https://hapoc2017.sciencesconf.org/
Masaryk University Brno
4-7 October 2017

held under the auspices of the
DHST/DLMPS Commission for the History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC)
www.hapoc.org

In their societal impact, computers have grown way beyond their roots in mathematics and logic. Their ubiquity since the late 20th century has increased the number and impact of several of the original questions raised by early computer scientists and practitioners: questions about their expected and intended behaviour, as Alan Turing did when asking whether machines can think; questions about their ontology, as John von Neumann did when asking what the computer and the human brain have in common; questions about their role in performing human tasks, as Norbert Wiener did when asking whether automatic translation is possible. With new technologies, the need for rethinking formal and technological issues is crucial.

HaPoC conferences aim to bring together researchers exploring the various aspects of the computer from historical or philosophical standpoint. The series aims at an interdisciplinary focus on computing, rooted in historical and philosophical viewpoints. The conference brings together researchers interested in the historical developments of computing, as well as those reflecting on the sociological and philosophical issues springing from the rise and ubiquity of computing machines in the contemporary landscape.

For HaPoC 2017 we welcome contributions from logicians, philosophers and historians of computing as well as from philosophically aware computer scientists and mathematicians. We also invite contributions on the use of computers in art. As HaPoC conferences aim to provide a platform for interdisciplinary discussions among researchers, contributions stimulating such discussions are preferable. Topics include but are not limited to:

– History of computation (computational systems, machines, mechanized reasoning, algorithms and programs, communities of computing and their paradigms,…)
– Foundational issues in computer science and computability (models of computability, Church-Turing thesis, formal systems for distributed, cloud and secure computing, semantic theories of programming languages, …)
– Philosophy of computing (computer as brain / mind, epistemological issues, …), Computation in the sciences (computer experiments and simulations, computer-aided systems for teaching and research, …)
– Computer and the arts (temporality in digital art; narration in interactive art work, speculative software, programming as a deferred action, computing and affect, performativity of code, eristic of HCI, …)

We cordially invite researchers working in a field relevant to the main topics of the conference to submit a short abstract of approximately 200 words and an extended abstract of at most a 1000 words (references included)

Submit through EasyChair at
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapoc2017

Deadline for abstracts and extended abstracts: 15 May 2017
Notifications of acceptance: July 2016

Accepted papers will be presented in 30 minute slots including discussion. Abstracts must be written in English. Please note that the format of uploaded files must be in .pdf. Submissions without extended abstract will not be considered.

Conference fee: EUR 150, including welcome reception and conference dinner.

The conference will be preceded by a special workshop on the reception of Hilbert’s axiomatic method in Eastern Europe on 3 October 2017, organized by Mate Szabó (see the link in the left column for more details). Accompanying cultural programme will include: the remake of the 1968 Brno exhibition Computer Graphic (featuring Frieder Nake and others), the first computer art exhibition in Eastern Europe, preceding Cybernetic Serendipity by several months, Live coding performance (inspired by the Exhibition Computer Graphic), the concert Exposition of New Music (contemporary music), and field recordings of Brno (student project).

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CiE 2017: call for informal presentations

Call for informal presentations

Computability in Europe 2017, June 12-16, Turku, Finland
http://math.utu.fi/cie2017/

Important dates
• Submission deadline: May 1, 2017
• Notification of acceptance: Within two weeks of submission

There is a remarkable difference in conference style between computer science and mathematics conferences. Mathematics conferences allow for informal presentations that are prepared very shortly before the conference and inform the participants about current research and work in progress. The format of computer science conferences with pre-conference proceedings is not able to accommodate this form of scientific communication.

Continuing the tradition of past CiE conferences, also this year’s CiE conference endeavours to get the best of both worlds. In addition to the formal presentations based on our LNCS proceedings volume, we invite researchers to present informal presentations. For this, please send us a brief description of your talk (one page) by the submission deadline May 1st.

Please submit your abstract electronically, via EasyChair <https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cie2017>, selecting the category “Informal Presentation”.

You will be notified whether your talk has been accepted for informal presentation within two weeks after your submission.

Jarkko Kari and Ion Petre (PC co-chairs of CiE 2017)

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International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11 february

11 February 2017 is the second celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Enjoy the celebrations and spread the news!

United Nations website http://www.un.org/en/events/women-and-girls-in-science-day/ Science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Over the past 15 years, the global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science. Unfortunately, women and girls continued to be excluded from participating fully in science. According to a study conducted in 14 countries, the probability for female students of graduating with a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree and Doctor’s degree in science-related field are 18%, 8% and 2% respectively, while the percentages of male students are 37%, 18% and 6%.

In order to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls, and further achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/70/212 (draft A/70/474/Add.2) declaring 11 February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

UNESCO website

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/int-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science/international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-2017#.WJrEEWeKw8o

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2017 Covey Award goes to Ray Turner

We are happy to announce that the IACAP 2017 Covey Award will go to Ray Turner, one of the HAPOC council members and we congratulate Ray with this well-deserved recognition of his work on the philosophy of computer science. See the announcement below for more details.

The International Association for Computing and Philosophy’s Covey Award
recognizes senior scholars with a substantial record of innovative
research in the field of computing and philosophy broadly conceived.

IACAP’s Executive Board is delighted to announce that Professor Raymond
Turner will be presented with the Covey Award at IACAP 2017, June 26-28,
Stanford University, where he will present the Covey Award Keynote
Address.

Professor Turner is Professor Emeritus of Logic and Computation in the
School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University
of Essex, where he has served since 1985. Holding doctorates in
Mathematical Logic and Theoretical Computer Science (Queen Mary College,
London, 1973) and Philosophy (Bedford College, London, 1981). Professor
Turner has also been a Sloan Research Fellow at the University of
Massachusetts-Amherst (1982) and CSLI, Stanford University (1984). He
was Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at the University of
Texas-Austin (1984 and 1987) and Senior Research Fellow at the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1984 and 1986). Currently he serves
on the editorial board of the Journal of Logic and Computation and, for
the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, as Editor of Logic and
Computation.

Professor Turner’s work in Theoretical Computing Science and the
Philosophy of Computer Science has been field-defining and
ground-breaking. His books include Computable Models (Springer 2010),
Constructive Foundations for Functional Languages (McGraw Hill 1991),
Truth and Modality for Knowledge Representation (MIT Press 1990), and
Logics for Artificial Intelligence (Pitman, 1984). His publications
include “A Theory of Properties”, (Journal of Symbolic Logic, 1987),
“The Foundations of Specification” (Journal of Logic and Computation,
2005), “Type Inference for Set Theory” (Theoretical Computer Science,
2001), “Specification”, (Minds and Machines, 2011), “Programming
Languages as Technical Artefacts”, (Philosophy and Technology, 2014),
“Logics of Truth” (Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 1990), and “The
Philosophy of Computer Science”, (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy,
2013).

As Professor Turner describes his research,

The philosophy of computer science is concerned with those
philosophical issues that arise from within the academic
discipline of computer science. It is intended to be the
philosophical endeavour that stands to computer science as
philosophy of mathematics does to mathematics and philosophy of
technology does to technology. Indeed, the abstract nature of
computer science, coupled with its technological ambitions,
ensures that many of the conceptual questions that arise in the
philosophies of mathematics and technology have computational
analogues. In addition, the subject will draw in variants of
some of the central questions in the philosophies of mind,
language and science.

In contrast, I take the central task of Theoretical Computing
Science to be the construction of mathematical models of
computational phenomena. Such models provide us with a deeper
understanding of the nature of computation and representation.
For example, the early work on computability theory provided a
mathematical model of computation itself. Turing’s work is of
fundamental importance here. Adapting Gödel’s diagonalization
argument, he demonstrated that there are problems that do not
admit of an algorithmic solution. He thus provided a
mathematical model of computation that displayed its
limitations. Later work on the semantics of programming
languages enabled a precise articulation of the underlying
differences between programming languages and led to a clearer
understanding of the distinction between semantic representation
and implementation. Early work in complexity theory supplied us
with abstract notions which formally articulated informal ideas
about the resources used during computation. I take this model
building endeavour to be the central and fundamental role of
theoretical computer science.

Please join us at IACAP 2017, June 26-28, Stanford University to
congratulate Professor Turner on this well-deserved award.

http://www.iacap.org/iacap-2017/

Best,

Don Berkich
IACAP President